Isn't it fine to have a smartphone that fits in your pocket? Isn't it dandy to have a tablet for two-handed tasks? Soon you'll be able to buy both for just $200 — no contract required — with this Intel-powered smartphone that transforms into a tablet.

AT&T's jumping on the no-contract bandwagon with its new BYOD, pre-paid AIO brand. For $40 a month you can get unlimited talk and text and 250MB of data. 2GB is $55 and 7GB is $70. No LTE though. Welcome to the party, guys.

Metro PCS isn't exactly known for its selection of cutting-edge devices. Yes, it has the Galaxy S III now, but they charge 500 bucks for it. Pardon us for generalizing, but we're going to posit that people on Metro PCS are looking to save money. That's where the LG Spirit 4G find its sweet-spot.

Verizon just launched two cheaper prepaid plans with unlimited talk and text messaging. The $70 plan offers 2GB of 3G data and for $60 you get 500MB. Previously, Verizon only had an $80 prepaid plan, that offered unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data. More data for cheaper? Good! The only thing is that the plan is…

Yesterday, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce plans to offer the iPhone 4 and 5 on a pre-paid basis with Straight Talk, a no-contract carrier offering unlimited data plans. And if you go with anything else, you're probably a sucker.

If you want to get an iPhone 5 on a conventional data plan, you can preorder tomorrow and have it in your greedy little mittens on September 21st. If prepaid is more your style? That can be arranged—but you'll have to wait for it.

Brian Chen over at the NY Times has an interesting post about prepaid phone plans, and how, on average, they're cheaper than the more common 2-year contract from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile. But the catch is that you have to pay full price for a handset up front, which is almost always more expensive.

The dream is real. After AT&T killed prepaid plans for the iPhone, no US carrier has allowed anyone to go with a prepaid, no contract plan when it came to the iPhone. Not anymore. Come June 22nd, Cricket will be selling the iPhone and offering a $55 month-to-month unlimited voice, text and data plan.

Long-term smartphone contracts are expensive and make carriers buckets of money. A report indicates that people are slowly wising up: In the first quarter of this year, carriers lost contract subscribers for the first time ever. Is this the beginning of the prepaid future? Not exactly.

Well, this is surprising. A reader over at TUAW saw both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S pop up on the Cincinnati Bell website. Not only is Cincinnati Bell not a big carrier like AT&T and Verizon, but it in the prepaid section. What the?

According to SAI, Apple COO Tim Cook hinted that cheaper and prepaid iPhones are on the way. Not only that, Cook went on to say he wants Apple to be a company "for everyone," not "just for the rich." [SAI]

Scratch another one against privacy in the name of "public safety" and "protection": Following European Union directives, Spain will disconnect all pre-paid phone lines that aren't registered with the owner's personal information. Who wins here?

Shockingly, AT&T has discovered that *gasp* people are abusing their unlimited pre-paid data service by tapping into it with their laptops. As a result, the plug is being pulled on the $19.99/month option starting on November 12th. AT&T will also place a cap on the legitimate laptop DataConnect plan that works out to…

With the news about Elliot Spitzer's demise plastered everywhere you look, the folks at Complex brought up an interesting point—when you are a public figure, pre-paid cellphones are the way to go when calling hookers. Even drug dealers know that it is the way to go when you don't want to leave evidence behind—so how…

Are you stuck in a 1996 timewarp? Perhaps you have kiddie issues. Fear not, for Bandai and Playphones have gotten together and come up with the Tamagotchi prepaid cellphone. Like all the best ideas, it is a simple concept...